The present invention relates generally to the field of computer network management, and more particularly to configuring a software defined network.
In computer networking, network traffic management is the process of managing, controlling, or reducing network traffic, such as Internet bandwidth, e.g., by a network controller. A goal of network traffic management is to reduce congestion, latency, and packet loss. In order to do this effectively, it is necessary to monitor network traffic to determine the causes of network congestion and address such problems.
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers, typically within a limited area, such as a home, school, or office building, using network media such as twisted-pair cables or wireless. A wide area network (WAN) is a network that covers a broad area, for example, a computer network that crosses metropolitan, regional, national, or international boundaries, typically using leased telecommunication lines. The largest WAN is the Internet.
Software-defined networking (SDN) is an approach to computer networking that allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of lower-level functionality. That is, SDN abstracts the underlying infrastructure of the network so it can be treated as a logical or virtual entity. In SDN, control is decoupled from the hardware and given to a software application called an SDN controller. This is done by decoupling the control plane, the system that makes decisions about where traffic is sent, from the forwarding plane, the underlying systems that forward traffic to the selected destination.
Today, around 90% of network traffic goes out to a WAN, e.g., the Internet, while, at one time, 80% stayed in a LAN. Moreover, mobile device use is proliferating. Static deployment of network resources according to predefined workload patterns may be insufficient to meet demands. While software-defined networks are more agile and readily configurable than conventional networks, network configuration is reactive, in that network traffic is monitored and then managed in response to changes in network traffic patterns that occur, for example, when edge routers connecting LANs to a WAN become overloaded. Sudden traffic density shifts and transient surges may result in over-provisioning in some areas causing under-provisioning in others. Hence, a more sophisticated, proactive, approach to network traffic management would be desirable.